Internment Archives

Japanese Americans Get Affirmative Action Medals Of Honor

William J. Hopwood, Commander USNR (Ret)
April 11, 2007

On June 21, 2000, in an impressive ceremony on the White House South Lawn,
President Clinton awarded Medal of Honor upgrades to 22 Asian-American soldiers
in World War II who had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for valor
more than fifty years ago. All but seven of the awards were made posthumously.
Twenty of those named had been members of the 100/442nd Regimental Combat Team,
including Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii who was present at the ceremony to
accept his Medal of Honor upgrade.

The ceremony was nationally televised and widely reported in newspapers throughout
the country. Headlines such as, “Racial Prejudice Had Blocked Medal of
Honor Awards,” were typical of the national coverage. News reports
contained the usual litany of politically-correct but historically inaccurate
charges roundly condemning our wartime government for its treatment of Japanese-Americans
and firmly proclaiming that the Medals of Honor were long overdue, having been
withheld from these particular recipients more than five decades ago because
of “racism.” In the reporting process, it was common for press
stories to multiply by several times the number of Purple Hearts and other
wartime awards received by the Japanese-American 100/442nd Regimental Combat
Team, using exaggerated figures repeated so often that they have become firmly
embedded in the media psyche.

The upgrades to Medal of Honor only for Asian-Americans
has not been without controversy. In letters-to-the-editor and in Internet
discussion groups, many World War II veterans have expressed outrage at what
they perceive to be a politically-motivated action timed to take place in a
presidential election year in an effort to pander to an increasingly important
ethnic constituency. The blatant discriminatory nature of the upgrade process,
which eliminated consideration of any Caucasian recipients of the Distinguished
Service Cross for no other reason than their race, is considered abhorrent
and un-American by numerous war veterans and non-veterans alike.

At this point some background information is in order. The Medal of Honor
was originated during the Civil War and represents the highest military award
available for bravery in action against an enemy force. Until this recent upgrade,
only 3,427 such medals had been awarded in the history of the United States
and never before had a numerical ratio or quota by race or ethnicity been established
for recipients of this, our nation’s highest honor. Only 347 Medals of
Honor were awarded during WW II.

Agitation for the recent awards was initiated in 1996 by Senator Daniel Akaka
(D-Hawaii), himself as Asian-American, who contended that although Asian-Americans
had received numerous awards of the Distinguished Service Cross for WW II service,
the “climate of racial prejudice” which existed in the country
during World War II resulted in “bias, discrimination, and hysteria” in
the award process of the Armed Services, preventing Asian-Americans from receiving
the number of Medal of Honor awards which was their due.

As a result of Senator Akaka’s Congressional efforts, an amendment to
the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-106, Title V,
Subtitle C, Section 524) directed the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary
of the Navy to conduct a review of all Asian-American and Pacific Islanders
who were awarded the Army Distinguished Service Cross of the Navy Cross in
World War II “to determine whether any such award should be upgraded
to Medal of Honor.” The Congressional Record reflects that during
discussion of the proposed amendment, Senator Akaka stated “I am deeply
concerned that this group of Americans may have been discriminated against
in awarding the CMH. The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War
II is a clear indication of the bias that existed at the time. This hostile
climate may have impacted the decision to award the military’s highest
honor to Asians, particularly Japanese-Americans.” He offered no evidence
that any such discrimination had actually taken place.

In line with what has become the conventional wisdom of the times, the senator’s
remark, “internment of Japanese-Americans” mistakenly confused
the evacuation and relocation of resident alien Japanese and Japanese-Americans
from the West Coast military zones with the internment of enemy aliens in time
of war in accordance with international and domestic law. Only enemy alien
Japanese, German, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian nationals were “interned” during
WW II, including over 5,000 Japanese-Americans who had renounced their U.S.
citizenship and requested expatriation to Japan to support the enemy war effort.
Nor did the senator mention the considerable amount of intelligence with regard
to espionage and potential sabotage involving then-unidentified persons (alien
and citizen) within the West Coast Japanese community which formed the basis
for President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 authorizing the evacuation
of such persons from sensitive military area for national security reasons
shortly after Pearl Harbor.